CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PatientsLikeMe
has unveiled a suite of services for pharmaceutical companies that
allows them to collaborate with patients on the design of clinical
trials and other research. The announcement was made at the 50th
annual meeting of the Drug
Information Association (DIA) in San Diego, where PatientsLikeMe was
awarded the 2014 DIA President’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in
World Health. The award, accepted on behalf of PatientsLikeMe members
and staff by Co-Founder and Chairman Jamie Heywood, is the DIA’s
highest, and recognizes significant and innovative contributions to the
improvement of world health.

PatientsLikeMe Vice President of Innovation Paul Wicks, Ph.D. said that
with more than 250,000 members reporting on their experiences with 2,000
diseases, PatientsLikeMe has transformed the way patients can shape
research. “We’ve nurtured an open, data-sharing environment where
members share their experiences to live better, and built a foundation
for pharma-patient partnerships that can truly advance medicine. By
listening to patients, we can create actionable insights that optimize
the design of trial protocols and bring about better treatments, faster.”

The new services were launched as results from a March 2014 survey of
PatientsLikeMe members reveal just how broken the trial process is, and
how eager patients are to help fix it. Members were asked about their
attitudes toward, experiences with and criteria for participating in
clinical trials. Of 1,621 survey respondents:

One out of three (31%) reported having previously been invited to
learn about a clinical trial, and 62% of that group participated in
one.

Of those participating in a trial, one in five (20%) were “slightly”
or “not at all” satisfied with their experience.

An overwhelming majority (93%) said they would be willing to help
researchers design better trials.

Regarding future participation, 88% said they would like to learn more
about clinical trials, while 80% indicated they would like to take
part in a trial within the next 12 months.

The full survey results will be presented at DIA’s Professional Poster
Session at location T44 on Tuesday, June 17, 2014.

PatientsLikeMe announced three services at DIA:

Trial Access, which allows pharmaceutical companies to develop
and deploy custom research programs that gather meaningful data and
feedback on the design of their clinical trials. Trial Access also
includes review of an expanding repository of patient opinions and
attitudes about participating in clinical trials. Once the trial
protocol is finalized, companies can run outreach and referral
programs to raise awareness and recruit for their trial among
PatientsLikeMe’s members, a highly effective service that
PatientsLikeMe’s top pharmaceutical clients have used since 2008.

Community Access, which pairs researchers with PatientsLikeMe
scientists and patient engagement experts to build open, online
registries for research to gain insights from patient-reported data
that can be shared across the organization.

Access Services, which allows companies to quickly collect and
analyze real world data to generate statistically robust and
scientifically credible patient outcome research, and determine the
impact of new wearable and consumer-oriented health devices and
sensors on clinical development and commercialization.

PatientsLikeMe® (www.patientslikeme.com)
is a patient network that improves lives and a real-time research
platform that advances medicine. Through the network, patients connect
with others who have the same disease or condition and track and share
their own experiences. In the process, they generate data about the
real-world nature of disease that help researchers, pharmaceutical
companies, regulators, providers, and nonprofits develop more effective
products, services and care. With more than 250,000 members,
PatientsLikeMe is a trusted source for real-world disease information
and a clinically robust resource that has published more than 50
peer-reviewed research studies. Visit us at www.patientslikeme.com
or follow us via our blog,
Twitter
or Facebook.